FLAX 421 



The hackles ordinarily used for hand-hackling in this country are in the form of 

 rectangular parallelograms, presenting a line of 7 inches towards the worker, and 

 4 to 5 inches deep. The first tool employed is called the 'ruffer,' the pins of which 

 are about inch square at their base, and 7 inches long, and brought to a fine point ; 

 the second is the ' common 8,' which is always used after the ' ruffer ; ' then the fine 

 8,' the ' 10,' the ' 12,' the ' 18.' The pins of all these tools are similarly placed to 

 those of the ruffer, but are somewhat shorter in length, and are more slender as the 

 tools increase in fineness. In all these tools the pins are held in wooden stocks of 

 about f inch in thickness and covered with sheet tin. This sheet tin, through which 

 the pins are driven, helps to support them and prevent the wood from splitting. 

 These tin-covered stocks are only of a size necessary for the extent of pins em- 

 ployed, and are themselves screwed to other larger pieces of board, a little broader 

 and some inches longer 

 than themselves, and 

 by which they are ulti- 

 mately fixed to the 

 hackler's bench, inclin- 

 ing somewhat backward 

 with their points from 

 the worker, and a slop- 

 ing board behind to 

 prevent the flax enter- 

 ing too much in the pins 

 thus: 



Fig. 929, end view of 

 a hackle ; fig. 930 front 

 view of hackle ; fig. 931 

 hackle, &c., fixed up for 

 working, a pins ; b tin- 

 covered stock ; c founda- 

 tion board ; d beam of 

 table or bench ; e backboard ; / table to receive the tow, &c. ; G hand of workman. 

 Such is the.form of hackle used in England, and also the manner in which they are, 

 of whatever description, fixed for work. 



The operation of manual hackling is simple in principle, although it requires much 

 experience to acquire dexterity. 



The workman having first divided the flax into handfuls or stricks, of which there 

 are 300 to 400 to the cwt., proceeds to grasp one as flatly spread as possible 

 between his forefinger and thumb, by about its middle, and wind the top end round 

 his hand in order the better to prevent the slipping of the fibres ; he then begins by a 

 circular swing of his arm to lash the root end into the hackle ; taking care to com- 

 mence as near the extremity as possible, now and then collecting the fibres by holding 

 his left hand in front of the tool, turning the strick from time to time. He thus 

 gradually works up as near as possible to his right hand, when he seizes the ruffed 

 part of the strick and holds it in the same manner as at first, and proceeds by a 

 similar treatment to ' ruff' the top end ; when this is finished the ' ruffed ' work is 

 taken to the tool called a ' common 8,' the pins of which are much closer placed than 

 those of the ruffer, and are only 4 or 5 inches long. This ' 8 ' is always used after the 

 ruffer, but from it the work can be taken to any of the finer tools, viz. 8, 10, 12, and 

 sometimes 18. It is usual and better to dress both ends over each tool before taking 

 the work to the next. The pins of all these tools are 4 inches long, in order, as was 

 supposed, to have sufficient spring. The flax is not lashed into them as into the 

 ruffers, neither are the ends required to bo wound round the hand. But the root end 

 of the flax is always the one to be first worked, and the hackling begun at nearly the 

 extremity of the strick, which on being drawn through the hackle is received by the 

 left hand of the workman, and by it carried back and laid upon the backboard and 

 over the point of the pins, for the angle of inclination of the hackles and a slight 

 lowering of the right hand causes it to enter sufficiently on being drawn forward. As 

 it is impossible to ruff or dress entirely up to the hand, when the hold is changed in 

 either operation, there must of necessity be left a certain space to be repassed through 

 the tools; this is called the 'shift,' but the less length that is required for this 

 purpose the better for the yield of line. The numerous long fibres that slip from the 

 strick in ruffing must be collected and drawn from the mass of tow attached to them, 

 when they can be relaid in the strick, or kept to be dressed separately under the 

 name of ' shorts,' and from time to time the short fibres or tow sticking to the teeth of 

 the finer tools are removed. Whenever one-half of the length of the strick of flax is 

 hackled, it is turned round to hackle the other half. This process is repeated upon each 



